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Why do so many people want us back in the office?

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Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#591

Post by jlokier »

system2 wrote: post #225

Remote work does not work for people who switch from office to home. It is not in their blood. Most office employees need constant management. If the employee can get away with watching netflix and do minimum from home, they will do it. I've observed many employees getting super slow or unreachable almost instantly after they start working from home. Most bosses don't like it and they get fired. In most cases nothing…

There are widespread reports from companies that their employees are proving to be more productive working from home during Covid-19 than they were in the office.

Based on that, it would be wrong to jump to the conclusion the "most" employees need constant management in an office and will do the minimum possible at home.

This is why there's such a big debate about WFH now. Having tried it at scale in a forced situation, turns out it actually works ok for many jobs in the short term.

Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#592

Post by alexbanks »

weeksie wrote: post #201
alexbanks wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The long term shakeout of this will be that everybody realizes that yes, we need offices. You said this, and then wrote the rest of your post about the opposite? Why do you think we'll need offices?

Remote work is massively inefficient for some things, even if it is much more efficient for others. Smart firms will do the efficient thing in the most efficient place and see gains across the board as a result.

So...practically none of them...?

Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#593

Post by ThrowawayR2 »

ckdarby wrote: post #8
ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #6

I don't care about "us" going back to the office but I definitely want to go back to the office and I am far from alone in this.

Can you discuss why you want to go back to the office?

I have many of the same reasons as others have outlined already and also have some specialized equipment at the office that is a hassle to work with remotely.

Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#594

Post by sjy »

ck425 wrote: post #528
sjy wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Companies don’t compensate employees for the cost of their commute either. I don’t see the big deal here; the marginal cost of working from home is often pretty close to zero.

It's really not. The costs of commuting and wfh vary dramatically between individuals. In my case I have no commuting costs, I run or walk to work. Hell it's actually slightly cheaper as I showered at work 5 days a week. The costs of wfh during winter however are massive as I live in an old northerly city where well insulated flats simply don't exist. Plus my flat is mostly one room, with massive windows and has elec…

Thanks for the numbers. I’ve never lived somewhere cold enough to make it noticeably more expensive to stay at home all day, but now you’ve got me wondering if the cost of WFH would be more noticeable if I had air conditioning. I’m sure the cost is also significant for normal people who don’t consider a desktop computer and fast home internet a basic utility.

Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#595

Post by fyfy18 »

Philip-J-Fry wrote: post #499
mancerayder wrote: post #392

This is a complicated problem with different perspectives that no doubt will get muddled at some point. I'm confident at least the following is true: Some people have long commutes and wfh is great Others have small, expensive apartments they paid for shorter commutes and it's suffocating 40-50 hours a week Some people live in palaces and offices are a step down in comfort Some people are happy with the online intera…

One of the things I would struggle with is progression. In my current job I'm progressing quickly and have built good relationships with my colleagues. We can take a break and just turn around and chat for 10 minutes about random stuff. When everyone is working from home it's not like I could just call someone and chat to them because I don't know if they're busy or not. I can't build the same sort of relationships a…

> When everyone is working from home it's not like I could just call someone and chat to them because I don't know if they're busy or not

I don't really see what the issue is. In my company if we want to chat we simply ask on Slack "can we have a call?", and the other person either says 'ok' or 'call me later'. Most conversations happen over async chat, which is great if you are waiting for something to compile (Scala...).

How do you do it in an office setting? Would you go over to a person wearing headphones and starting telling them about your weekend?

Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#596

Post by aksjfnkajsnd »

rocklee93 wrote: post #548

I've often found people praising WFH during CoVid times by viewing it as an opportunity to pursue their pass-times, I love the great outdoors/traveling and have found the CoVid restrictions stifling my pass times. I'm at a point where I don't hate WFH but I hate WFH during the CoVid time. I see a lot of articles extrapolating the WFH during CoVid time to WFH in general, I think these are two different things.

> I see a lot of articles extrapolating the WFH during CoVid time to WFH in general, I think these are two different things.

Thank you! Likewise, I don't actually want to WFH except for the fact that there's a pandemic and it's the responsible thing to do given that I'm able to. It's getting tiring explaining this to management- the argument somehow becomes about WFH during non-pandemic times.

Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#597

Post by aksjfnkajsnd »

smcleod wrote: post #497
aksjfnkajsnd wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how do you downvote?

Sometimes I mess up when I’m in the wrong headspace but usually only for misinformation, aggressive hostility, personal insults. As I said I mess up sometimes and I try not to downvote too often.

No I mean, on HN, I thought you could only upvote. How can I downvote?

Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#598

Post by naavis »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #576
mancerayder wrote: post #392

This is a complicated problem with different perspectives that no doubt will get muddled at some point. I'm confident at least the following is true: Some people have long commutes and wfh is great Others have small, expensive apartments they paid for shorter commutes and it's suffocating 40-50 hours a week Some people live in palaces and offices are a step down in comfort Some people are happy with the online intera…

> Some people are dissatisfied with the online interactions and prefer to talk to humans and not text strings from humans they can't see or hear I think this is easily resolved by audio / video calls. All of my coworkers are significantly older than me and have no issue communicating this way. I dont mind commuting but I dont want to commute as often. I think my sweet spot would be to commute around noon once traffic…

Video calls are not remotely (no pun intended) the same as meeting face to face. In the office I can casually joke with the person sitting next to me, and it is usually visually evident when they are busy and I shouldn't bother them. If we both need a break, we can take a short walk, go for a lunch together or something. Video calls are limited, akward and uncomfortable compared to that. Video calls have their place but they are not the same thing.
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